CHAPTER XX.
Lovelier in her own retired abode ....than Naiad by the side Of Grecian brook--or Lady of the Mere Lone sitting by the shores of old romance.
WORDSWORTH.
THE meditations of Ravenswood were of a very mixed complexion.

He saw himself at once in the very dilemma which he had for some time felt apprehensive he might be placed in.

The pleasure he felt in Lucy's company had indeed approached to fascination, yet it had never altogether surmounted his internal reluctance to wed with the daughter of his father's foe; and even in forgiving Sir William Ashton the injuries which his family had received, and giving him credit for the kind intentions he professed to entertain, he could not bring himself to contemplate as possible an alliance betwixt their houses.

Still, he felt that Alice poke truth, and that his honour now required he should take an instant leave of Ravenswood Castle, or become a suitor of Lucy Ashton.

The possibility of being rejected, too, should he make advances to her wealthy and powerful father--to sue for the hand of an Ashton and be refused--this were a consummation too disgraceful.